Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 5-22-20

Obama
Obama Is Baiting Trump
Two columns and a Face- book post caught my attention this morning:
Obama Lives in Trump’s Head by Charles Blow
(NYT)
This is why Trump is back to attacking Obama by Jennifer Rubin (WaPo)
Obama is a master of strategy
by David Gerrold (Facebook)
The gist of all three is that Former President Barack Obama is still getting under President Donald Trump’s skin, and Trump is back to scratching an itch he can never get rid of. But Columist David goes a bit further: Obama is now deliberately goading Trump to distract him from attacking Biden.
Trump has always hated Obama, partly because Obama is a successful Black man, who succeeded entirely on his own merits, and Trump simply cannot accept that. Trump also hates Obama because he is every- thing Trump has wanted to be: suave, intelligent, re- spected, admired, and compe- tent. It’s a combination of Trump's lifelong racism and his envy of those whom he knows, deep down, are better than him.*
Trump Has No Plan To Hold Portrait Ceremony For Obama
Also, It seems that the of- ficial portrait for former Pres- ident Barack Obama may not be put up in the White House while President Donald Trump is in office.
Traditionally, presidential portraits are unveiled during the first term of their succes- sor. It is a tradition that has been going strong for 40 years.
It's very likely that the un-
veiling may not happen at all. So why the break in tradi- tion? It seems to stem from the relationship shared by the
two leaders.
President Trump has
repeatedly lashed out at Obama, even going as far as to accuse him of committing several unspecified crimes.
On the other side, former President Obama criticized the White House's response to the coronavirus pandemic but didn't name President Trump or blame him specifi- cally.
Trump also wants, des- perately, pathologically, to win re-election. This is only partly because there will be warrants waiting for him the day he finally leaves the Oval Office. Most of it is the fear his father drilled into him as a young boy: Never be a loser. Loser is the worst thing you can be. (A third factor may be that, as soon as he is out of power and people no longer fear him, they will all start laughing at him and telling the truth about just what an in- competent, bungling, mo- ronic, all-around asshole he really is. After all, that’s what all those NDAs were about — but Congress and most of the executives didn’t sign any.)
And he knows he’s losing to Biden. So he and his surro- gates are ramping up their at- tacks on Joe. But Trump has lately fixated once again on the man who haunts his night- mares by his mere existence: President Barack Obama.
Blow argues that Trump is going after Obama again to stir up his racist base: “Trump is reaching past Joe Biden in his basement for an opponent who evokes a more visceral disdain from his base: Obama.”
Rubin makes the same argument: “He remains con- vinced that if he just gets his rabid base sufficiently en- gaged, he can pull out another improbable win.”
David offers a different slant: Obama is baiting
Trump in order to distract him from Biden. And Trump took the bait:
Attacking Trump, even indirectly, is deliberate. He's taking fire now so Joe Biden doesn't have to.
Obama will continue to be visible right up until the Democratic convention — and with Trump directing all of his anger at Obama, he won't be focusing as much on Biden.
David also adds that at- tacking Obama will solidify the Black vote for Biden more than Trump will solidify his racist votes. I think there’s some merit to this point, though Blacks have always been inclined to vote for Biden; it was the Black vote in South Carolina that restarted Biden’s campaign.
The Trump machine is continuing to attack Biden,
Trump can't stand it when Obama laughs.
the latest attempt being Ju- nior’s baseless accusation that Biden is a pedophile. But that doesn’t have the same impact as when the holder of the bully pulpit does it. While I’m not sure that the tactic will be as effective as David thinks, I do agree that Obama is deliber- ately goading Trump into at- tacking him. I’ll add that it’s not just to take the heat off Biden. The former president remains enormously popular and respected. The more Trump (and McConnell)
make baseless attacks against him, the more the country sees how ridiculous and con- temptible they look.
On top of everything else, it’s fun to watch a master po- litical strategist in action.
*For the grammar police (of which I admit to being a member): “he” and “him” are both correct, though “he” is more formal. But in this case, “him” is being compared to “whom.” Feel free to argue, of course!
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